A Wolf At The Door.

(Shh, I'm sneaking over here during the work day to record this. Don't tell anybody!)

Read this poem.

I've included some notes on it afterwards. For now, just read this. Take your time with it. Examine the words, the patterns, the tightly contained packets of imagery that this author has composed for you here.

Enough talking from me. Read this...

A Wolf At The Door.

Drag him out your window
Dragging out your dead
Singing I miss you
Snakes and ladders
Flip the lid
Out pops the cracker

Smacks you in the head
Knifes you in the neck
Kicks you in the teeth
Steel toe caps
Takes all your credit cards

Get up get the gunge
Get the eggs
Get the flan in the face
The flan in the face
The flan in the face

Dance you fucker
Dance you fucker

Don't you dare
Don't you dare
Don't you flan in the face

Take it with the love is given
Take it with a pinch of salt
Take it to the taxman

Let me back
Let me back
I promise to be good
Don't look in the mirror
At the face you don't recognize
Help me call the doctor

Put me inside
Put me inside
Put me inside
Put me inside
Put me inside

I keep the wolf from the door
But he calls me up
Calls me on the phone
Tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up
Steal all my children
If I don't pay the ransom
But I'll never see him again
If I squeal to the cops

No no no no no no no

Walking like giant cranes, ah
With my x ray eyes, I strip you naked
In a tight little world and why are you on the list?

Stepford wives, Who are we to complain?

Investments and dealers
Investments and dealers
Cold wives and mistresses
Cold wives and sunday papers.
City boys in first class
Don't know we're born little

Someone else is gonna come and clean it up
Born and raised for the job
Someone else always does always pick it up

Get over
Get up
Get over
Turn the tape off.

I keep the wolf from the door
But he calls me up
Calls me on the phone
Tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up
Steal all my children
If I don't pay the ransom
But I'll never see him again
If I squeal to the cops
So I'm just gonna'

Okay, so confession time. That's not a poem. It's lyrics of a song. Specifically, it's "A Wolf At The Door" by Radiohead, from their album, Hail to the Thief. If you've heard the song, it's rambling and creepy and a little disturbing. The lyrics are rushed through as if someone (or something) is chasing the character singing the song. Which is apropo, since the subject matters is one of Implied Menace and Impending Doom.

I like this song.
And not just for the melody. Which is also creepy and rambling.
I like it for the words.
Which I've always thought were pretty powerful. "Dance you fucker! Dance you fucker!" is said in a way that clearly communicates the speakers lazy, unspoken cruelty. You better start dancin' or something REALLY bad is going to happen to you.

Today, when it was on my internet radio, I stopped to look up the lyrics and I was impressed by how much they looked like a poem. The images that it conjures forward are pretty stark, pretty clear. In short, it's a well written song.

Which I thought I would share with you.

And now I have.

Cheers,
Mr.B



PS. If you're inclined to hear the song and see a really wonderful, creepy, cartoon video that really compliments the song, then you should watch this...